The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum

Knowing about the writer of a literary text can shape significantly the way that it is read. Consider the effect of the writer's context on your understanding of The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

"As a writer of fiction Bцll was interpreting history, creating patterns of meaning, ordering his material to enable his reader to make sense of it." The experiences of Bцll and his values that arose from these events have been influential on the content and themes of Bцll's novel, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. Bцll experienced both the first and second world wars and the effects that these wars had on German society. Events such as the economic collapse in Germany post WWII, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the rise of student based urban terrorism in West Germany in the 1970's and the increasing state controls to contain such alleged threats can be seen to influence the issues explored in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. The novel is a comment on the press and the law, the labyrinth of social truth, the collision of fact and fiction and the power of language. Bцll himself experienced the press first hand and this along with the experiences of Professor Bruckner, form the basis of his criticism directed at the powerful and hegemonic structures in society, in particular in relation to the police and the press and their corrupt relationship in the novella. Many of Heinrich Bцll s views and attitudes, resulting form his context, are clearly visible in the novella through the portrayal of certain characters in positive or negative lights. The historical, social, economic and political context of Bцll and West Germany at this time (1900's) had a considerable effect on the issues Bцll delves into in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum and greatly affected my understanding of the novel.

Germany has a deeply rooted history with fascism in the form of Nazism in WWII (1939-1945). Bцll was a teenager at the time of Hitler's rise to power and he despised Hitler and everything that he stood for. "I hate the war and all those who love it". Bцll actively refused to join Hitler's Youth as a boy, yet as a young man he was forced to join Hitler's army. After the war, until the German Republic was formed, Bцll lived under the Allied Occupation. These events led Bцll to view politics with doubt and skepticism and he became vehement about creating an informed public who were capable of involvement in the political life of their nation. In Bцll's eyes,

"After the experience of the trade crisis, of being at the mercy of economic forces, now came the experience of being at the mercy of political forces, which was almost worse, since you could get used to the former and somehow do something for yourself, but there was nothing you could do about the other."

Bцll found it especially distressing that the people who could have best afforded to resist the rise of fascism, for example the university professors, did so little. In The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Bцll s attitude of contempt for the Nazi's can be viewed in the lack of interrogation of Konrad Beiters, "Konrad Beiters voluntarily admitted to having once been a Nazi and that alone explained why so far no one had paid any attention to him". Konrad is the only character close to Katharina who is not questioned by the police and this shows the right winged political stance that West Germany still had in 1974 and the misuse of authority by powerful people in social institutions such as the media and the police, especially men.

In 1949, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Bцll was living in West Germany at the time and this is where The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum is set. West Germany was allegedly the democratic, capitalist sector whereas East Germany was governed with communist ideologies. Great paranoia was present in West Germany about East Germany because communism, with its focus on the redistribution of wealth was always a possible threat to capitalism. This fear of communism is very apparent in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum and is portrayed through characters such as the pastor and the doctor. "No, he could offer no proof of his claim nor did he want to, he even said he did not need to, he could still rely on his sense of smell and he had simply smelled that Blum was a Communist." These accusations are made without any supportive evidence and despite the clear capitalist platforms that Katharina has based her life upon such as carefully saving up enough money to buy an apartment and a car. Anyone who offered resistance to the dominant hegemonic structures in society was viewed with suspicion and claimed to be a communist. "The only result for Blorna was that, at the conclusion of his inquiries in the village, he was himself described, if not precisely abused, as a Communist..." The press spread such fear and paranoia about this ideology when in fact Bцll felt that some aspects of communism would benefit a capitalist society. Brettloh makes the statement,

"That's how false ideas about socialism are bound to end. I ask you and your readers: How does a housemaid come by such wealth? Not honestly that's for sure. Now I know why I was always scared by her radical views, her hostility to the Church..."

This fear is then spread in society, tainting the way that others view Katharina. Dr Heinin goes on to express, "mistakenly assuming her to be a Marxist (probably he too had read the insinuation of Brettloh...), was taken aback by her detachment..." Bцll emphasizes how imaginary fears of the rising of the proletariat and distortions of communistic ideas were portrayed by the press to distract and suppress the lower classes in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

Germany was a hierarchical, class based society which had inherited its values from the Judeo-Christian traditions and was therefore extremely patriarchal and misogynistic in its attitudes and power structures. Bцll has attempted to portray the mind set of male supremacy in the novella through the self satisfied male characters who make assumptions about their supremacy over Katharina in the text due to their powerful positions resulting form their gender and money they posses. The corrupt Straьbleder demonstrates this,

"Who was going to believe that she would resist a man like StraÑŒbleder, who was not only well off but downright famous in the political, economic and academic world for his charm, almost like a movie star; and who was going to believe of a woman like